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I broke my lease as I am moving out of state. The landlord is charging me (1) a break-fee equal to a month and half of rent and (2) requirement to pay rent until the apartment is rented-out (upto the original lease-end date). This clause is specified in the lease agreement (i know i should have read it more carefully earlier). However I heard from a friend that it is against the law to charge both (1) and (2) together; has to be either of the two. Can someone please help clafiry this? Thanks in advance.
If the lease says you have to pay a fee AND be responsible for the remaining days/months until your lease end or the unit it re rented, then you are most likely stuck. If the lease does not state the fee you are most likely not responsible.
In my experience, twice I was charged a fee in lieu of being responsible for the remaining days/months.
Generally speaking, no. It is against basic contract law to charge someone a penalty for breaking a contract. They can charge you for that they would have received had you not broken the contract, hence, the amount of rent money each month until the property is rented. I don't know if NJ has a specific provision that allows a landlord to do this. However, as a general legal matter, I know that you can't charge someone a penalty for breaking a contract, including a lease. The only way they could get around it is to claim that it's some sort of "liquidated damages" provision, but if they know the exact amount of damages, then there are no liquidated damages. Ask them to show you the statute that allows them to charge you a penalty for breaking a contract.
Did you give him any notice, and if you did has he tried to find a new tenant? If I recall correctly, the landlord in NJ has a responsibility to try to mitigate his losses by actively seeking a new tenant. Unlike in some states (like PA) he cannot just sit back and require you to pay rent through the end of the lease unless he legitimately couldn't find a suitable tenant.
Our lease at our previous apartment allowed us to terminate the lease with 30 days notice after we'd rented for 1 year. There was a lease termination fee of $250 which we were able to apply to our security deposit, and honestly that place was such a hellhole that $250 seemed like a bargain to us to get out of there. Actually I think that's the only good thing I could say about that place...
State law is that the landlord can pursue you for the remaining rent as long as he demonstrates a good faith effort to re-rent the apartment. The burden of proof for that is entirely on him. By law, that is all he is entitled to. I'm guessing this is a small time landlord and not a company. Many lease sites will recommend to include a "break lease fee" to cover costs with re-renting and reconditioning for the apartment in addition to charging the rent. However, NJ law precedent is that the landlord can only claim the actual damages that they incur when you moved out which would only be whatever rent they were unable to collect.
If you want to work it out, you can try to make an arrangement to settle the whole matter for a certain amount of money. Just make sure that you get a pretty iron clad agreement that this settles the matter. The next option is to simply leave and then place the burden on the landlord to pursue you for the damages in small claims. The landlord would then have to prove how long it took to re-rent and his claim for a fee would most likely be thrown out based on precedent. The general "right way" would be that you would just continue to make rent payments each month until the unit was re-rented.
I am in a similar situation. We had been at our apt for over 4 years. We are expecting our 3rd child and have grown out of our 2br apt so we bought a home. Our 1 yr lease runs from Sept 1 2012 - Aug 30th 2013. We gave our 60 day notice in late Nov. to terminate. They informed us we will be charged a early termination fee (1/2 months rent = $950) which will be deducted from our security deposit and are responsible for all rent until our lease termination date or until it is filled. We left the place spotless and were out of the apt Jan 28th.
My issue is their communication. I had to call them multiple times to find out if they had found someone to fill the vacant apt. Finally, on Feb 6th they responded to my email and informed me they had not rented it. I replied in my email that I would like to know what attempts they have made to re-rent the apt and suggested they put a "for rent" sign at the entrance of the apt complex and advertise it on Craigslist.com. They did not respond to my email. It would seem like at the least they owe me some type of explanation of what type of attempts they are making to re-rent the place. Also, on the notice they sent me of their receipt of our notice to terminate, it says to check in with the rental office to see if they apartment has been re-rented. Well, I've called multiple times and left messages and no body has called me back.
I am half tempted to not send the rent for March if no one gets a hold of me but don't want to lose the rest of my security deposit, hurt my credit, or be sued. Any suggestions? Thanks
Our leases now have the tenant pay costs incurred to re-rent the place, including realtor commission if applicable. This is an agreement on the lease prior to signing.
No one will suggest not to pay, however it does sound like the landlord is not making a concerted effort to rerent the place. I would call my attorney and have him send a certified letter. Especially after you gave 60 days notice.
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